Your Right to Know

View SlideshowRequest to buy this photoJONATHAN QUILTER | DISPATCHGov. John Kasich says his plan is good for students, such as Danielle Bunting and Simon Murdock of Sheridan Middle School in Thornville. “We should be in the business of funding children, students, and that’s what this plan does,” Kasich said.

A week ago, Bob Caldwell was among more than a dozen school superintendents praising Gov. John
Kasich’s education plan. The longtime leader of Wolf Creek Local School District in southeastern
Ohio was so impressed after hearing the governor outline his plan to several hundred school
administrators in Columbus that he eagerly agreed with the Kasich administration’s request to
provide a public statement of support.

But now, Caldwell and many other superintendents say they feel duped by Kasich.

“We got told all the right things, but he didn’t follow through,” Caldwell said. “This is not
what we were told.”

“I almost think it’s going the other direction. It’s like the rich are getting richer and the
poor are getting poorer,” said Brad Miller, treasurer of the Dawson-Bryant School District in
southern Ohio’s Lawrence County.

“It looks like we haven’t accomplished anything. There was a lot of anticipation, and I had high
hopes, but as of right now, it seems like nothing’s going to be done.”

Yesterday, Kasich said he still had not seen any material detailing how much money each of Ohio’s
612 school districts would receive under his plan.

“No, I don’t look at those because it’s the philosophy that matters,” Kasich said after a
town-hall meeting with business professionals in Dayton to promote his tax proposals. “And to look
at a (computer) run and yank out one part of it distorts the whole purpose of it. … We said we were
going to fund the school system on the basis of dollars following pupils.”

He defended his comments to superintendents last week about helping poor districts.

“The fact is, if you look at what we said and you look at how this formula was put together, it’s
completely consistent,” Kasich said. “We shouldn’t be in the business of funding buildings. We
should be in the business of funding children, students, and that’s what this plan does.”

Of the 97 districts classified by the state as rural and high poverty, 82 percent would get no
additional state aid in 2014, and 76 percent would get zero increase over the next two years. Eight
of those districts would get increases averaging at least 5 percent per year.

Meanwhile, of the 153 districts classified as urban/suburban with high or very high median
income, 44 percent get no additional funding for two years, while another 44 percent get annual
increases that average at least 5 percent.

“Based on what they said, I was not expecting to see that pattern,” said Howard Fleeter, an
economist and school-funding expert who works with public-school organizations. “They articulated
their goals, but the outcomes don’t appear consistent with those goals.”

Perhaps no one is more disappointed than the head of the district where the DeRolph
school-funding lawsuit originated in the 1990s, leading to four Ohio Supreme Court rulings that
declared Ohio’s funding setup unconstitutional.

“I was hesitantly optimistic when he rolled out the plan. But instead of closing the gap between
poor and wealthy districts, it appears to be exacerbated,” said Tom Perkins, superintendent of
Northern Local Schools in Perry County. “We had hoped for more of an equal playing field without
sacrificing the ability of wealthier districts to raise money on their own.”

Roger Mace, superintendent of Gallipolis City Schools in southeastern Ohio, said, “Everyone in
the room when he (Kasich) announced his budget was misled.”

“It was stated by our governor, ‘We need to give the students in Gallia County the opportunity
to be competitive with other school districts’ ... how did (the two districts in) Gallia County get
rewarded? Zero percent increase!” Mace said.

But some school leaders are grateful that their state aid wasn’t cut.

“We’re happy for the most part that we were held to flat funding. It doesn’t allow us to do some
of the things we would like to do, but it allows us to hold the line,” said Richard Seas,
superintendent of Coldwater Exempted Village School District in western Ohio.

Seas said the district will have the opportunity to receive one-time aid through Kasich’s
proposed innovation fund, and his plan to lift some state regulations and mandates will help.

Rep. Gerald Stebelton, R-Lancaster, a member of the House Finance Committee and chairman of the
House Education Committee, said he is satisfied with the proposal.

“If districts are already receiving high amounts of funding (from) the state, it was pretty much
a sure thing that they weren’t going to receive a whole lot more, but they weren’t going to get any
less,” he said.

“I’ve talked with a lot of superintendents. I don’t think they’re really disappointed, because I
think they were expecting a cut. The good thing is, we have equalized opportunity for smaller and
larger poorer districts.”